So, we're going to look ahead to the remaining 2018 episodes, before going on to explore what awaits us in the second season... including when we'll get to see it.

Star Trek Discovery season 2 airdate: When do we next get more Trek?

Photo credit: Netflix / CBS

The second half of season one launched on January 7 and will air until February 11.

Part of the reason it's returned so swiftly is CBS changed its season order at the last minute, adding an episode to the first half of the season, meaning we got 9 episodes in 2017, with six airing this year (it was originally going to be eight and seven).

In terms of when season two will start – well, that's a bit more complicated. Don't worry, we'll get to that.

Still, we'd be very surprised if we don't see Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Saru (Doug Jones) and Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) in season two, at least. As for Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif), well, he might still be in it, but he'll probably be in a very different form...

Star Trek Discovery season 2: Timeline

Photo credit: Netflix / CBS

One element that's confused fans during season one is the timeline. We're seeing major differences between what's happening in Discovery and how it'll eventually line up with the original series (which starts 10 years after the events in Discovery).

But we shouldn't worry too much. Showrunner Alex Kurtzman clearly has a plan. "We are wildly aware of everything that appears to be a deviation from canon. We will close out each of those issues when we close out our ten-year period and hit TOS," he said.

"There is a tradition in Star Trek of trying to use modern storytelling techniques, visuals, props, and visual effects to contemporise the original feeling that was generated by the props, the sets, and the visual effects that were done.

"Even within the original series and certainly Next Gen we've seen ourselves go back and update. So digitally we went back in and made the planets look better and the ships look better. Just pure opportunity. So fundamentally it's subject to interpretation how far is too far."

He added that the series will "remain true to the technology" we know – Discovery is set a decade before the events of the original 1960s series – even though there's so much more they could do these days.

"We have ten years until the original series comes into play. It is a challenge creatively because we have lots of choices, in terms of how do we reconcile this [Spore] drive? This surrogate daughter of Sarek? How do we reconcile these things the closer we get to the original series?," he teased.

Harberts has also promised that season two will feel more like traditional Trek. "We have time to do things like more away missions, newer planets. These are stories that might fall a little bit more into a framework of allegory that people love to get from Trek."

Star Trek Discovery season 2 premiere: When is it on?

Explaining the showrunners want to learn lessons from the first season, Kurtzman said: "Now we know what we can do and where the sand traps are, so let's give ourselves ample time to announce a date that makes sense to everybody - both the needs of production and CBS.

"Breaking story is, in some ways, the easier and faster thing; it's the ability to execute on it that's much harder. We want to take the right amount of time and don't want to rush."

All which is very noble, but it does mean we're going to have to wait until 2019 at the earliest before we get to join the continuing voyages of the Discovery.